Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg
1868 – 1914 · Generation XXI · Consort
Sophie (1868 – 1914). Consort. Married Franz Ferdinand in 1900. Born Sophie Chotek; morganatic wife of Franz Ferdinand; assassinated alongside him at Sarajevo. Born in Stuttgart to the Bohemian count Bohuslav Chotek, an Austrian diplomat whose postings included that court, she became a lady-in-waiting to Archduchess Isabella after her parents died. The romance came to light when Isabella opened a locket Franz Ferdinand had left on a tennis court, expecting her own daughter’s portrait and finding Sophie’s. Ancient nobility though the Choteks were, they lacked dynastic rank, and the heir could marry her only after swearing publicly, on 28 June 1900, that neither she nor their children would share his rights. Made Princess and later Duchess of Hohenberg, she still ranked behind every archduchess at court. The Sarajevo visit fell on the fourteenth anniversary of that oath; after a bomb attack that morning she refused to leave her husband’s side, and Gavrilo Princip’s bullet struck her in the abdomen. Barred from the Imperial Crypt, she lies beside him at Artstetten.
Place in the family
- Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg married Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, a nephew of Franz Joseph I of Austria.
Partners
- Married Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (1863 – 1914) in 1900
Life
- 1868 — Born
- 1900 — Married Franz Ferdinand
- 1914 — Died